In February, Ireland finally came clean regarding some very dirty laundry, admitting its long-standing role in aiding and abetting the existence of the notorious Magdalene laundries.

Ostensibly asylums for the reform of "fallen" women, these facilities enabled the Catholic Church to turn a tidy profit by using women - petty criminals, unwed mothers or simply young women deemed overly flirtatious or beautiful, in a country that has long associated women with sex and sex with sin - as a slave labor pool. The last one wasn't closed until 1996. | May 10, 2013»Read Full Article(4)

DJ Kaskade probably could have sold out the Rave's 3,500-person-capacity Eagles Ballroom Friday. Instead, he played the intimate Oak Lounge for a couple hundred people.

It was the last stop of the Redux tour, a 12-show run that took the electronic dance music star to tiny clubs — and cities like Milwaukee and El Paso, Texas, instead of Chicago, New York or Los Angeles. Kaskade has said the tour was intended to recapture the vibe of his club gigs 10 years ago, before his mega-popularity, "when it was all about the music." | May 17, 2014»Read Full Article

Here's what's truly obscene: Nearly 50 years after the revolution called "Hair," we still struggle with its chaste nude scene — even as we casually absorb nightly images of dead bodies from the world's killing fields.

Sixto Diaz Rodriguez, known by fans simply as Rodriguez, had been an erased footnote in the United States, even in his home city of Detroit. Unknown to him, his music had become wildly popular in South Africa, and the 2008 and 2009 reissues of his two LPs — 1970's "Cold Fact" and 1971's "Coming From Reality" — and the award-festooned 2012 documentary "Searching for Sugar Man" made powerful arguments against his obscurity. | May 17, 2014»Read Full Article

The lineup has been announced for the 12th annual Summer Sounds, a Friday night series of free concerts from June 13 to Aug. 22 (excluding July 4), largely featuring national touring acts. | May 17, 2014»Read Full Article(1)